###Live Caption:A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train pulls into the Dublin - Pleasanton BART station on March 6, 2008. The new parking structure is visible in the background with Interstate 580 in the foreground.
The opening of the new BART parking structure at the Dublin-Pleasanton (Calif.) BART station has been delayed because Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty wants to see the "hideous" structure re-painted at a cost of $500,000.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle###Caption History:A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train pulls into the Dublin - Pleasanton BART station on March 6, 2008. The new parking structure is visible in the background with Interstate 580 in the foreground.
The opening of the new BART parking structure at the Dublin-Pleasanton (Calif.) BART station has been delayed because Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty wants to see the "hideous" structure re-painted at a cost of $500,000.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle###Notes:***Scott Haggerty###Special Instructions:MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT

The grand opening of BART's $42 million parking garage at the Dublin-Pleasanton Station has been put on hold after Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggertywent ballistic over the gray slab's "hideous" looks and demanded a $500,000 paint job to pretty it up.

Dublin has long been known for its nondescript car dealerships and big-box stores, but the town has worked hard in recent years to spiff up its image to passing freeway motorists, Haggerty said.

"Now they have this monster of a parking garage sitting there in what is truly the gateway to Dublin ... and it's a disaster," Haggerty said. "If they were an influential community like Walnut Creek, they would have no problem having brick" on the facade.

Granted, the big Dublin garage might not be a beauty, counters a slightly chagrined BART spokesman Linton Johnson, but "it's not like county officials weren't part of the planning committee from day one."

Maybe, but Haggerty said it wasn't until recently that it became clear that the architectural drawings he'd been shown early on were a far cry from the mass of concrete and metal panels that sprang up near the freeway, just north of the BART station.

Three weeks ago, Haggerty contacted BART to demand that something be done. The system's officials balked, citing the cost of painting the garage and maintaining the paint job.

Toss in the supervisor's chest-beating about holding back BART funds, and faster than a speeding bullet train, BART officials reversed course and announced Friday they had reached a deal for the garage to be painted.

It'll be a nice earth tone, BART says. As for the maintenance costs, BART is stuck with them.

In the meantime, the ribbon-cutting originally planned for March 28 will be rescheduled.

By the numbers: If it were a movie, the plot for the Democratic state Senate race this June for the seat including San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties would go something like this:

Locked in a death grip, two feuding San Francisco gay incumbents, state Sen. Carole Migdenand Assemblyman Mark Leno, go over a cliff - leaving the North Bay's Joe Nation to walk away the winner.

That's the read of a new David Binderpoll of 500 likely Democratic voters that Leno commissioned.

The poll, conducted the week of Feb. 21, showed a three-way split, with late entry Nation (himself a former Marin County assemblyman) leading the pack with 27 percent.

Leno clocked in at 24 percent, while incumbent Migden trailed at 17 percent.

In other words, Migden and Leno kill each other by splitting the San Francisco vote, leaving Nation to clean up in the North Bay.

Given the history of these onetime friends turned enemies, it would be a surprise if either Leno or Migden bowed out to make room for the other.

And given the pair's growing animosity, it's unlikely that either will stop bludgeoning the other at every opportunity they get.

All Nation has to do is sit back and watch.

Labor war: The Bay Area is at the center of the mother of all union dust-ups - one complete with a leaked secret memo and accusations of double dealing.

Well, now we've been handed a document showing that one of Rosselli's own top negotiators recently signed a pact with nearly a dozen of the state's biggest health care companies for some secretive bargaining of their own.

So secret, in fact, that Rosselli's Southern California counterparts - who have jointly negotiated with his union in the past - were kept in the dark. They were, that is, until somebody dropped the dime on Rosselli's alleged back-door power move, which among other things forbids all parties from disclosing "either the existence of such discussions or the contents."

"We are outraged and flabbergasted," said Tyrone Freeman, president of the 190,000-member SEIU local representing much of Los Angeles and other parts of the state. "It's the most anti-democratic behavior, and it just shows the hypocrisy of the charges he has leveled against the SEIU" national leadership.'

Play the windy Bush family caption contest. Tell us the biggest impact that Dmitry Medvedev's election as Russia's new president will have on the West. And read the Extra, Extra, Extra musings and insights of friends including Rich "Big Vinny" Lieberman and The Chronicle's Carla Marinucci.